Self Diagnosis Can Be Harmful to Mental Health

By: Shelly Priscillia

Self diagnosis in mental health is a process when someone believes they have mental problems with some condition related to their research and observations, that’s because they do analysis by themselves without professionally medical diagnosis (Tse & Haslam, 2024). That condition starts when someone searches and sees on social media to identify the symptoms of their mental health issues or the algorithm on social media brings it to them. 

TikTok, for example, shares a lot of contents about mental health issues. Some psychiatrists created content there to share about mental health information. So, starting from there, some people who watched it will analyze their own condition and start questioning themselves. Why are the symptoms similar to my own feelings? Do I have a mental health problem? That’s why some young people normalize “self diagnosis” activity which causes someone to make assumptions about themselves (Evans-Lacko et al., 2019).

dr. Uditia Alham S, Sp.KJ on his TikTok video, explains about symptoms of depression that not everyone is aware of. He explained, Someone that looks normal in their daily look, but actually deep inside of themselves, they may feel hopeless, lose interest in doing activities, always stuck with burden, become easily emotional, feel unconfident, struggle with sleep, and feel exhausted.

Based on my own stories, I can relate to almost all of the symptoms that he mentioned. Back in 2023, I went through a painful relationship that still feels unforgettable. I had broken down, I cried a lot, felt gloomy for more than three weeks, lost excitement for life, still couldn’t believe and understand, so I kept asking to myself: What did I do to him? How could he betray me? How could he be so reckless? Am I not enough? Because of that, I spent more time on screen and watched many videos related to myself. One of them was from Analisa, a psychologist, who talked about the symptoms of depression and I realised that I had reached the stage where I do the things that were harmful to me. But, actually I realised after that feeling was gone, I felt everything was just fine.

Foto oleh cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/id-id/foto/pria-laki-laki-lelaki-pasangan-4101143/

As we can see, if you’re going through a problem and feel these symptoms suit you, please don’t self-diagnose like I did. It depends on how you handle your own problems. But if you can, share your struggles with people you trust so you don’t hold it all by yourself. Talking to someone you trust or seeking help from a mental health professional doesn’t make you look weak, it’s actually a brave step toward caring about yourself. Remember, you don’t have to go through it alone.

Source : 

Tse, J. S. Y., & Haslam, N. (2024). Broad concepts of mental disorder predict self-diagnosis. SSM – Mental Health, 6, 100326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2024.100326

Evans-Lacko, S., Stolzenburg, S., Gronholm, P. C., Ribeiro, W., York-Smith, M., & Schomerus, G. (2019). Psychometric validation of the self-identification of having a mental illness (SELF-I) scale and the relationship with stigma and help-seeking among young people. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 54(1), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-018-1602-2

Sukmawati, D. T., Yusuf, S., & Nadhirah, N. A. (2024). The phenomenon of self-diagnosis of mental health in the era of mental health literacy. Journal of Education and Counseling (JECO), 4(1), 48-63. https://doi.org/10.32627/jeco.vi.902

uditia_alham. (2024, August 11). Tanda-tanda depresi yang kadang tidak dapat disadari [Video]. TikTok. 

analisa.widyaningrum. (2022, November 7). Depresi dan ciri-ciri nya [Video]. TikTok. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSDc6wYqr/